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What I’ve Been Deleting Lately

So I wrote a post about how great my friends are (due to Emily’s comment about my social circle that left me all schoompy towards them), but it sounded all disjointed and so I deleted it. But, you know, they really are great, and I feel so lucky to be raising my kids in this town with these people. It’s such an honest group, and no one is judging, and… I’m so comfortable with them. And– AND– our husbands like each other; they really truly like each other, and that’s just the frosting on the cake, ya know? And while of that is fine and good (excellent, in fact. I LOVE YOU, FRIENDS!), it certainly wasn’t 17-paragraphs-of-babbling good. Really, you should all just come over and meet these people for yourselves.

So then I wrote about how I a blogger that I read (but that doesn’t read here, I’m certain) made a comment about a big company providing a free service “for the holidays” and how “for the holidays” was really just “politically correct for Christmas ha, ha, ha”, and how I think that line of thinking is wholly absurd and flawed. I mean, do people not understand that there are, in fact, SEVERAL WINTER HOLIDAYS right now? And that many of those holidays have been around as long– if not longer– than Christmas? And anyway, what exactly do Christians feel like folks are hijacking when they “take the Christ out of Christmas” by saying Happy Holidays or Merry Xmas? Do they want ownership of the rampant consumerism? The going into debt to buy things for people that people don’t want and/or don’t need? Because as far as I can tell, the only Christ-like portion that’s left of Christmas is what happens at church during this month, where it is completely appropriate to say “Merry Christmas!” because you know exactly what winter holiday the other church-goers are celebrating. So if the church portion of Christmas has remained untouched by The Christmas Hijackers, so WHAT if the mall has “Happy Holiday” signs up. Guess what? Jesus aint at the mall. And again, THERE ARE SEVERAL WINTER HOLIDAYS THAT FALL IN DECEMBER.

(I guess you can readily see why I deleted that post, for you certainly get the gist of it in one paragraph, not 8 pages, yes?)

So… what else can we talk about?

Well, speaking of consumerism, David and I did most of our holiday shopping yesterday, and it felt good to check that off of our list. (And as much as I think the holiday gift giving is over-done, out-of-control, and gross, and as hard as I try to have some kind of integrity to our gift-giving… I secretly love giving and receiving gifts. It’s… fun!) Even though he took the day off and we spent hours procuring gifts for the people on our list, my favorite gift that I’ve purchased so far was waiting for us when we got home. It was this doctor’s outfit that I ordered for Marin on Amazon:

Oh, man, it’s so cute in person. Marin is going to LOVE it. There’s even a little ID badge where I was able to glue a photo of her and write “Dr. Marin” that fits in the chest pocket.

I got a Christmas card today that had photos on it that I took for my friend’s family. That was fun to see. And speaking of holiday cards, my favorite so far this year is from Beth Fish. I chuckle every time I see it. No, really, it cracks me up several times a day. My own cards are still “in production” over at Shutterfly, so if you’re expecting one for me, it’ll be scooting in your mailbox riiiiight before Christmas this year. (And for the record, I am officially Christian– though my thoughts on modern-day Christianity are complex and don’t always make me want to claim Christianity– so the winter holiday that I celebrate is Christmas. But I don’t presume that it’s the winter holiday that YOU celebrate, nor do I insist that it’s the ONLY HOLIDAY that can be acknowledged this month.) /end rant

We dug ourselves out nicely from our last snow storm(16 inches, bitches!) (and we WERE able to go to a friend’s house for a Snowed In party, although it took awhile to uncover our cars to come home), but it’s snowing again right now, and I heard we’re supposed to get another 6-8 inches tonight. GOOD TIMES, White Christmas, Fa-la-la-la-la and all that jazz.

Speaking of snow, and therefore cold, we usually keep our house around 67-68 degrees in the winter, less overnight. Lately, I’ve been so cold (I think I must have the worst circulation IN THE WORLD), so I’ve been bumping it up to 70 degrees. And those two degrees? They make SO MUCH DIFFERENCE! My nose isn’t cold! I don’t need fingerless gloves while using my laptop! So I’m having this internal struggle about it, because I feel like we already overuse our resources in this big old house. Our footprint– or rather our houseprint– it is LARGE. So I don’t want to run my furnace at max capacity all the time, ya know?… But also, I’m home a TON, dammit, and I’m sick of being cold!

Sigh. First world problems are so difficult.

But anyway, this afternoon when I bumped up the heat, I noticed after a while that it really felt wonderfully warm in here. Like, my CHEEKS were ROSY. And.. I felt hottish in my fleece pants (that I had on only because I had taken a little snooze with Marin. I do here solemnly swear that I don’t go around town wearing fleece pants.) (Unless you count the preschool drop off in the mornings… because I’ve totally worn fleece pants to do that.) So, it was warm in here, is what I was saying. I relished it for a little while, and then I finally got up to see what the thermostat said, as I hadn’t heard the furnace kick off in quite a while. And ya’ll, it was 77 degrees in here! Oh, man, it was marvelous. I haven’t been that warm since I visited my grandma’s house! Oh, I LOVED 77 degrees!

(The furnace was stuck on, I learned. I know why, and it’s complicated and boring, so I’ll spare you the details. But it’s only 68 in here right now. BOOOOO.)

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10 thoughts on “What I’ve Been Deleting Lately”

I love that link to the funny faces Christmas card. We are really into funny faces in our family photos, and they are usually my favorite shots. I put our out takes on the back of our card this year. Speaking of, I was going to respond to your post about trading cards but forgot to go back and comment.

And I love good friends. I wish I had more of the kind you can be totally honest with. My friend Gretchen who you won the cozie from came over today and brought me all kinds of goodies. She said you were really nice in the giveaway.

OMG, I am so with you on holidays/Xmas/CHRISTmas. I really just want to be like, “STFU.” I think the baby Jesus was born in April or something anyway, right? Since when do Christians corner the market on December?

Can you tell I have a bit of a seething resentment? I live in Texas (Austin, but still), where it is 72 F in my house at almost midnight, and we are running the AIR CONDITIONER.

I have the same struggle with the heater. The winters I was pregnant, I would keep it at 65 or 66 and dress the others warmly. Now? I’m cold!!!
I try to keep it between 66-68 during the day but at night I bump it to 70. I would actually make it cooler at night, but the baby doesn’t use a blanket yet and the 2 year old doesn’t stay under a blanket.

I am always hot, and it’s even worse when I’m pregnant, so that’s a fine battle with Torsten because he’s always cold. We usually end up setting the thermostat to 69 and sometimes he sneaks over and bumps it up to 70. But 77? OMG I would melt.

I was thinking that I don’t know any Christ in Christmas people, but I bet I actually do. I just think they know better than to share those comments with me. =)

I’m glad you got your Christmas shopping done. I still have some to do, which is just going to be a great joy this weekend when every other person in the suburbs is shopping too. I have convinced my husband to buy the present I’m supposed to get his brother though (in exchange for me buying the present my husband is supposed to buy his sister), so that is one thing off the list.

Is it snowing where you are today? We already had almost an inch when I left the house today. We do not need any more snow!

We gave the “vet” M & D costume to my daughter for her 4th birthday last spring, and she LOVED it so much that she asked Santa for a nurse costume to go with it. My mom is sewing a nurse costume, but we really like the Melissa & Doug one. Good quality.

We recently had a home energy audit (the gas company comes and measures efficiency and gives all these incentives to make improvement, etc), and they installed a programmable thermostat and set it to 62 at night. I get up at least once in the night to nurse, and I thought I might have to build an igloo in which to nurse, so I wimped out and put it up to 66 at night. I just can’t stand it. Brrrr…. maybe once the baby is sleeping through the night.

I hate being cold so I understand your dilemma. I keep the upstairs cold unless the kids are up there playing, and then I can just turn on the propane heater in their playroom.
My husband and I are going out Saturday night to finish up our Christmas shopping. Of course that requires that I actually LOOK at what I’ve gotten for my kids and see what I need.

I love your thoughts on “Happy Holidays.” I mean, obvs. But still. I have a LOT of relatives who join the “politically-correct”/”Christ in Christmas” group, and they drive me nuts this time of year. As if the Christian Christmas celebration wasn’t one of the biggest holiday-takeovers OF ALL TIME.